Son's statements may bolster case in Lake murder trial

May 31, 2008|By Stephen Hudak, Sentinel Staff Writer

TAVARES -- A judge's ruling may help prosecutors prove a motive in the murder case of 84-year-old Hugo Kladivko, accused of stabbing his wife to death last year at their home in The Plantation at Leesburg, a gated community for people 55 and older.

Kladivko will plead self-defense when his trial begins Monday in Circuit Court in Lake County, said defense lawyers Michael Graves and John Spivey.

Lawyers for the retired business executive had hoped to bar statements from Brenda Kladivko's adult son, Keith Frick, who told police that his mother wanted a divorce from his stepfather after 11 years of marriage.

The lawyers regard the son's testimony to be inadmissible hearsay.

But Circuit Judge Mark Hill, who will preside over the first-degree murder trial, said prosecutors can introduce the statements from Frick, who spoke to his mother by phone about 48 minutes before Hugo Kladivko called 91l and declared, "She stuck me and I stuck her."

Brenda Kladivko, 62, was dead when police arrived at the home about 10 p.m. on May 8, 2007.

She had been stabbed 16 times.

But the judge sided with defense lawyers on a similar issue, barring hearsay testimony from Brenda Kladivko's former co-workers at Toojay's Gourmet Deli in Lady Lake. They would have testified that Brenda Kladivko, a waitress, had come to work with bruises on her arms and said they were caused by her abusive husband, according to court documents.

Hill put off a decision on a third issue raised by Kladivko's lawyers.

They wanted him to prevent paramedics and emergency medical technicians from testifying that Hugo Kladivko was "playing possum" -- faking unconsciousness -- when they arrived at the home.

Police said Kladivko, known by the nickname "Bud," had two small puncture wounds on his arm.

According to a police affidavit, Kladivko said that the fight "was due to [his wife] telling him she did not love him and was leaving," but that she stabbed him first.

Police contend Brenda Kladivko was stabbed at least once while she was motionless on the floor.